JP3897453B2 - Inkjet recording device - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus, and more particularly to an ink jet recording apparatus having a wiping member for wiping an ink discharge port surface of a recording head.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Conventionally, in an ink jet recording apparatus such as a copying machine, an ink discharge defect may occur due to clogging of an ink discharge port portion of a recording head or ink adhering to the surface of the ink discharge port. In order to prevent this, a wiping member for wiping off deposits on the ink discharge port surface of the recording head has been provided. For this reason, for example, in the case of a serial scan type recording apparatus having a plurality of recording heads, as shown in FIG. 11, the recording heads 115BK, 115Y, 115M, and 115C that reciprocate in the width direction of the recording paper are cleaned. Each time it passes through the blade 500, the cleaning blade 500 comes into contact with the ink discharge surfaces of the recording heads 115BK, 115Y, 115M, and 115C in order, and the ink discharge surfaces are wiped to wipe off the deposits.
[0003]
Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 12, the wiping member 550 is moved in the same direction as the arrangement direction of the ink ejection ports of the recording heads 120C, 120M, 120Y, and 120BK, and the ink ejection of the recording heads 120C, 120M, 120Y, and 120BK is performed. Some have wiped the deposits by wiping the surface.
[0004]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, according to the conventional method shown in FIG. 11, the plurality of recording heads 115BK, 115Y, 115M, and 115C are in contact with one wiping member 500 in the ink jet recording apparatus in order. There is a case in which the adhering matter adhering to the wiping member 500 after wiping the ink discharge port surface of the first recording head 115BK adheres to the second and subsequent recording heads 115Y, 115M, and 115C. It is often seen that the effect is not fully obtained.
[0005]
In the case of color recording, the plurality of recording heads 115BK, 115Y, 115M, and 115C use a plurality of types of ink such as black, cyan, yellow, and magenta. For the reason, the ink of the first recording head 115BK adhering to the wiping member 500 may adhere to the other recording heads 115Y, 115M, and 115C and cause a so-called color mixing problem.
[0006]
On the other hand, in the method as shown in FIG. 12, the above-mentioned problem can be avoided, but the same portion of the wiping member 550 keeps contacting the ink discharge port surfaces of the recording heads 120M, 120Y, and 120BK. The adhering material such as ink attached to the member 550 itself is increased. In particular, in the case of a long recording head, the ink discharge port surface near the end of wiping is completely smaller than the ink discharge port surface of the portion where wiping is started. There is a drawback that it is difficult to perform simple wiping.
[0007]
Accordingly, in order to solve such a conventional problem, the object of the present invention is to always perform the ink discharge port surface of the recording head on a portion where there is no ink deposit on the wiping member, thereby causing problems such as color mixing. In addition, another object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet recording apparatus having a recording head which can always perform a good wiping action by a wiping member.
[0008]
[Means for Solving the Invention]
The ink jet recording apparatus of the present invention is configured to supply ink from ink discharge ports of a plurality of ink discharge port arrays arranged on a carriage that is movable in the main scanning direction and arranged in a direction orthogonal to the main scanning direction. an inkjet recording apparatus for ejecting and recorded, with one wiping member for wiping said plurality of ink ejection opening array by moving along the array of the ink discharge ports of the plurality of ink ejection opening arrays The carriage is moved by a distance smaller than the interval between the adjacent ink discharge port rows while the wiping member is moved by the length of each of the ink discharge port rows.
[0011]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
As described above, according to the present invention, the ink jet recording apparatus can move the wiping member in the arrangement direction of the ink discharge ports of the print head and at the same time in a direction perpendicular to the arrangement direction of the ink discharge ports by the above-described configuration. Since the wiping action is performed while relatively moving, the wiping action of the ink discharge port of the recording head can always be performed at a portion where there is no ink deposit on the wiping member, and there are a plurality of recording heads. However, a good wiping action can always be performed without causing problems such as color mixing.
[0012]
Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
[0013]
【Example】
Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the ink jet recording apparatus of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
[0014]
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an outline of the overall configuration of the ink jet recording apparatus in the first embodiment of the ink jet recording apparatus according to the present invention, and FIGS. 2 to 7 are explanatory views of the operation of the wiping means. 8 and 9 are explanatory views of the cleaning means for the wiping member itself added to the wiping means.
[0015]
As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the inkjet recording apparatus of the present invention conveys an unwinding roll 1 around which a printing medium 2 such as a fabric is wound, and a printing medium 2 unwound from the unwinding roll 1. And a printer unit 10 that prints a desired pattern or pattern on the print medium 2. The transfer apparatus 4 that prints the print medium 2 that is printed, and a printer unit 10 that prints a desired pattern or pattern on the print medium 2. The medium 2 is unwound from the unwinding roll 1, passed through the guide roll 3, and sent to the printer unit 10 by the conveying belt 4 a of the conveying device 4, and a predetermined printing is performed in the printer unit 10, and the winding roller 8 The printer medium 2 is wound up.
[0016]
The conveying device 4 includes a driving roller 5 driven by a driving device (not shown), a driven roller 6 corresponding to the driving roller 5, and a conveying belt 4a which is an endless belt hung on the driving roller 5 and the driven roller 6. This is a belt conveyor made mainly of metal, rubber or the like having an adhesive material on the surface of the conveyor belt 4a. A print medium 2 such as a cloth is affixed to the surface of the endless belt of the transport device 4 and is intermittently fed one print width at a time by the drive roller 5, and the recording heads 10 a, 10 b, 10 c, and 10 d described later in the printer unit 10. Is printed by the serial scanning method and wound on the winding roller 8. The conveyance belt 4a, which is an endless belt of the conveyance device 4, is supported by the platen roller 7, and maintains an appropriate distance between the print medium 2 such as a fabric and the recording heads 10a to 10d.
[0017]
As shown in FIG. 3, the printer unit 10 in the ink jet recording apparatus of the present invention has a rectangular frame f placed on the main frame F so as to be positioned in a direction perpendicular to the transport direction of the print medium 2. A head carriage 9 is provided inside the frame f so as to be movable along a pair of parallel-spaced main scanning rails 12 extending in the longitudinal direction of the frame f. The head carriage 9 is provided with recording heads 10 a, 10 b, 10 c, and 10 d for printing with inks of colors such as black, cyan, magenta, and yellow, respectively. The print medium is supported in a slidable manner along the head carriage 9 in the direction of the arrow P by a driving means (not shown), and is synchronized with the print medium 2 intermittently fed by the conveying device 4 described above. A required pattern, a pattern, an image, or the like is printed every two print widths.
[0018]
As shown in the drawing, the printer unit 10 in the ink jet recording apparatus of the present invention includes a capping provided with a cap rubber 14 for preventing the ink discharge ports of the recording heads 10a, 10b, 10c, and 10d of the head carriage 9 from being dried. When the head carriage 9 is located at the home position shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the cap rubber 14 is pressed against the head carriage 9 by the air cylinder 15.
[0019]
Further, when performing the printing operation, as shown in FIG. 5, for example, the air in the air cylinder 15 is removed, and thereby the capping unit 13 is lowered in the direction of the arrow D, and the capping unit 13 is removed from the head carriage 9. After the separation, the head carriage 9 is scanned in the direction of the print medium 2 (arrow P direction). In FIG. 2, the ink discharge port surfaces 10a ′, 10b ′, 10c ′, and 10d ′ of the recording heads 10a, 10b, 10c, and 10d and their arrangement directions (arrow E) are shown.
[0020]
Further, as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the printer unit 10 of the ink jet recording apparatus of the present invention includes ink discharge port surfaces 10a ′, 10b ′, 10c ′, 10d of the recording heads 10a, 10b, 10c, 10d. A wiping member 16 as a wiping means, an air cylinder 17 that operates the wiping member 16, a cleaning nozzle 18 that injects a cleaning liquid to clean the wiping member 16, and a cleaning liquid tank (not shown). And an electromagnetic valve 19 for controlling the supply of the cleaning liquid supplied to the cleaning nozzle 18, and constitutes a cleaning means for cleaning the recording heads 10 a, 10 b, 10 c and 10 d. Further, the wiping member 16 is installed so that it can be moved by the air cylinder 17 substantially parallel to the direction perpendicular to the main scanning direction (arrow P direction) of the recording heads 10a to 10d, that is, the ink discharge port arrangement direction (arrow E direction). Has been. Further, the air cylinder 17 is configured so that the wiping member 16 can be appropriately moved together with the movement of the head carriage 9 by a control mechanism (not shown).
[0021]
In FIG. 1, the cleaning liquid for cleaning the wiping member 16 (using pure water in this embodiment) moves the cleaning liquid from the cleaning liquid tank (not shown) below the cleaning nozzle 18 by the on / off action of the electromagnetic valve 19. By hanging on the wiping member 16, it acts to wash away the adhering matter such as ink attached to the wiping member 16 and to clean the wiping member 16 back to a state where no ink etc. adhere. Further, the wiping member 16 in the present embodiment is made by using a flexible porous material, thereby further enhancing the wiping action and effect.
[0022]
In this way, the wiping member 16 on which the cleaning liquid is applied by the cleaning nozzle 18 of the wiping member 16 is regenerated with a good wiping action and effect by appropriately sucking the cleaning liquid by the suction nozzle 20 and the suction pump 21. We can expect as much as possible. Further, as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, a preliminary ejection box 22 is provided adjacent to the air cylinder 17, and the ink ejection nozzles in the recording heads 10 a to 10 d that are less likely to be ejected to the print medium 2. Ink discharge is performed, and drying of the discharge nozzle during the printing operation can be prevented.
[0023]
Next, the wiping means of the recording heads 10a to 10d of the ink jet recording apparatus according to the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.
[0024]
First, FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a state in which the recording heads 10a to 10d that have finished printing of one print width L have moved to the wiping start position. That is, the head carriage 9 temporarily moves the center of the ink discharge port array surface 10a ′ of the recording head 10a closest to the print medium 2 from the end of the wiping member 16 closest to the print medium 2 to a position S1. To do. Here, if the pitch of the adjacent recording heads 10a to 10d is A, the relationship between the distance S1 and the pitch A is S1> A, as is apparent from FIG. Further, it goes without saying that the total length S of the wiping member 16 is S ≧ S1 + 3A, and can be easily understood from the drawings. (However, there are four recording heads, and the interval between the recording heads is A). Subsequently, the wiping blade 16 starts to move in the direction of the arrow W1 by the control mechanism described above, and moves to the position w1 in the drawing, whereby the wiping blade 16 and the ink discharge port surfaces 10a ′, 10b ′. The contact with 10c 'and 10d' starts as shown in FIG.
[0025]
At this time, the head carriage 9 that has been stopped until now starts to move in the direction of the arrow P1 in FIG. 4 by the control mechanism described above. At this time, as shown in FIG. 6, the relative movement speed of the two is such that the head carriage 9 is adjacent while the wiping member 16 moves from the position w1 to the position w2 in the direction of W1, that is, by one print width L. It is set to move so that B ≦ A with respect to the interval A between the recording heads.
[0026]
As described above, the head carriage 9 is moved by the distance B ≦ A during the wiping operation in the arrangement direction of the ink discharge ports of the recording heads 10a to 10d, so that each of the ink discharge port surfaces 10a ′ to 10d ′ is moved. The ink discharge port is always wiped off with a new wiping surface of the wiping member 16, and color mixing with the ink of the adjacent recording heads 10a to 10d does not occur, so that good wiping is performed.
[0027]
Further, in this embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, when the wiping member 16 is moved in the direction of the arrow W1 by the air cylinder 17 and the wiping member 16 is positioned below the cleaning nozzle 18, In this way, the cleaning water is applied to the wiping member 16 so that the adhering matter such as ink attached to the wiping member 16 is washed away, so that the ink discharge port surfaces 10a 'to 10d' of the recording head for the second and subsequent times. Wiping can be performed well.
[0028]
Further, as described above, in this embodiment, a porous material is used for the wiping member 16, but the washing water applied is applied to the suction groove 16 b and the suction hole 16 c provided in the holder portion 16 a of the wiping member 16. In addition, the suction nozzle 20 and the suction pump 21 made of an elastic body provided so that the suction holes 16c are in close contact with each other are appropriately sucked and can be adjusted to a wetness most suitable for the wiping action.
[0029]
Thus, the wiping member 16 cleaned and sucked and moved in the direction of the arrow W2 in FIG. 8 while the head carriage 9 moves on the print medium 2 for the printing operation. It is possible to prepare for the next wiping action.
[0030]
FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram of the wiping means of the reference example of the present invention. As shown in the drawing, during the wiping operation of the ink discharge port surface of the recording head by the wiping member 16, the head carriage 9 is kept stopped, instead, The movement direction of the wiping member 16 is shown in FIG.
[0031]
[Expression 1]
θ = tan ⁻¹ B / L B ≦ A
However, L = length of the ink discharge port array A = installed in advance by an inclination angle between adjacent print heads, and the ink discharge port array surface of one print head is set to a certain length of the wiping member 16 It can be wiped over a portion. It goes without saying that the same effect as in the first embodiment can be obtained even in this way.
[0032]
Needless to say, the above-described cleaning and suction means for the wiping member 16 can be incorporated in the same manner.
[0033]
In addition, although both the examples and the reference examples have been described as recording apparatuses for printed media such as fabrics, they can also be applied to other media such as paper and sheets. Although the wiping blade has been described as a porous material, it is needless to say that a so-called rubber blade can be applied.
[0034]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, the ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1 of the present invention has the flexible wiping member for wiping the ink discharge port surface of the recording head, and the wiping member is perpendicular to the arrangement direction of the ink discharge ports. Since wiping is performed while relatively moving the recording head, even if a plurality of recording heads are wiped, there is no concern about color mixing at all, and a long recording head can always be wiped with a new wiping surface. .
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is an overall perspective view of an embodiment of an ink jet recording apparatus according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of wiping means according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of wiping means according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of wiping means according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of wiping means according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of wiping means according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of wiping means according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of a cleaning means for a blade to which a wiping blade according to an embodiment of the present invention is added.
FIG. 9 is a similar explanatory view of the cleaning means for the blade to which the wiping blade of the embodiment of the present invention is added.
FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram of wiping means of a reference example of the present invention.
FIG. 11 is a perspective view of a recording head portion of a copying machine in a conventional example.
FIG. 12 is a perspective view of a recording head portion of a copying machine according to another conventional example.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Unwinding roll 2 Printed medium 3 Guide roll 4 Conveying device 4a Conveying belt 5 Drive roller 6 Driven roller 7 Platen roller 8 Winding roller 9 Head carriage 10 Printer part 11 Slide bearing 12 Main scanning rail 13 Capping unit 14 Cap rubber 15 Air cylinder 16 Wiping member 17 Air cylinder 18 Cleaning nozzle 19 Solenoid valve 20 Suction nozzle 21 Suction pump 22 Predischarge box F Main frame f Frame

Claims (6)

Inkjet recording in which recording is performed by ejecting ink from a plurality of ink ejection port arrays arranged on a carriage movable in the main scanning direction and in which ink ejection ports are arranged in a direction perpendicular to the main scanning direction. A device,
With one wiping member for wiping said plurality of ink ejection opening array by moving along the array of the ink discharge ports of the plurality of ink ejection opening arrays,
The inkjet recording apparatus, wherein the carriage moves by a distance smaller than the interval between adjacent ink ejection port arrays while the wiping member moves by the length of each of the ink ejection port arrays.   The inkjet recording apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an air cylinder that operates the wiping member.   The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a cleaning unit that cleans the deposits on the wiping member.   4. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the cleaning unit includes a cleaning nozzle, and includes a suction nozzle and a suction pump for sucking the cleaning liquid applied to the wiping member by the cleaning nozzle.   The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a preliminary discharge box for receiving the ink discharged from the recording head.   6. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the ink is ejected from the recording head to perform recording on a fabric.

Images